DURING its general assembly held this week in St Petersburg, the International Union of Railways (UIC) unanimously selected Mr Renato Mazzoncini, CEO of Italian State Railways (FS), as its new chairman for the two-year term from 2017-2018.

TESTING of the first metro line in the Indian city of Lucknow was officially launched on December 1, when Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mr Akhilesh Yadav flagged off a trial run on the initial 8.4km section of the north-south line between Transport Nagar and Charbagh, which is due to open on March 26.

A ground breaking ceremony was held in California on November 29 for the $US 700m five-year first phase of the 40-year $US 6bn North Coast Corridor (NCC) infrastructure improvement project.

GERMANY’s Federal Railway Authority (EBA) has granted Alstom approval for operational testing for its NBT ballastless slab track system, which is designed for use at speeds of up to 360km/h.

THE first of 27 CAF Urbos 100 LRVs for Utrecht’s Uithof Line has begun its journey from Spain to the Netherlands.

INDIA’s cabinet granted approval on November 30 for the Rs 109.5bn ($US 1.6bn) Mumbai Urban Transport Project Phase 3 (MUTP 3) project, which aims to expand rail infrastructure in the Mumbai, Thane, Palghar and Raigad districts of the western state of Maharashtra.

CZECH and Slovak open-access operator Regiojet is to set to launch Prague - Bratislava services with the start of the 2017 timetable on December 11, with trains running via Pardubice and Brno.